The Doppelganger Project
by Sweet Faced Lies
Summary: Kaien has gone missing, seeking the hollow who killed his wife. Rukia is sent to find and possibly kill him... but finds Ichigo instead. IchiRuki, semi AU.


**The Doppelganger Project**  
Sweet Faced Lies

Night time in the center of soul society was quieter than in any other place Rukia had ever known. Coming from the Rukungai, Kuchiki Rukia had once found that the sheer lack of noise - of anything - had been enough to steal away her sleep. But she'd adapted over the years and eventually came to except the silence. It was, in the end, an epitome of what the 13 divisions stood for. Control. Stability. No unknown factors to tip the equation. That was what the world was to them: an equation. And both sides had to be equal at all times; it was the golden rule that held their lives together, the ground on which they stood. She had adapted, and she had learned to accept it. In time, she had learned to respect it.

In her first years with the shinigami, it had been a difficult concept for her to swallow. The area she'd lived in all of her childhood, after all, was a perfect example of a place that could not be balanced. It was impossible to ward off all unknown factors when faced with such chaos and barbarity, and it stood to show that the world could not be perfect. The shinigami, she had suspected, were nothing more than fools trying to fasten a lasso around the moon. Such impossible goals.

But years went by, and her childhood memories faded. They were shoved out and replaced by the silence, the empty void of an equation so perfect that she became jaded to the beliefs she'd once known and was simply enthralled by the center of the soul society, a place where the moon's reflection came down on the lake and made it look like a possibility despite her common sense. She adapted to the silence, and to the ideals, and in doing it adopted the shinigami state of mind - the believe that they were in control of keeping the world perfect, and the belief that it could be done. Surrounded by the shinigami, there was nothing to challenge her in this belief.

This phase of blindness, inevitably, was forced to an end one night more than a century after it begun.

The sky was dark when Rukia fell into sleep, and it was dark when she was woken. Despite it having been hours, it looked and felt as if only seconds had passed since her cheek touched the roll that was her bed.

Kuchiki Byakuya's voice was what jerked her awake, and his face was the first thing she saw. Both were the cold, hard indications of an adopted brother who had never quite accepted her. His expression was closed. She had rarely seen it in any other state, so there were no hints to reveal the information that was in store for her, no way of knowing its staggering effect.

"Ukitake Juushiro… wishes to see you, Rukia."

At this hour in the morning? Her captain wished to see her? It was hardly an offer she could have refused, though it was highly unusual. "Yes, Aniki." Her mouth formed the words. She didn't show emotion. Byakuya was not fond of being shown emotion.

The black robe she slipped across her bare shoulders was still cold from the night's chill. So was the ground against her soles, and the air in her lungs. By the time she reached her captain's headquarters, the sun had just barely started to rise, and a dim light was spreading, casting long shadows across the ground, but warmth still hadn't reached the soft morning glow.

Somewhat shyly, she rapped her fist against the door and was rewarded by Ukitake's voice granting her entrance. It was unusually hollow, and when she stepped through the wooden doorframe she could only see a silhouette of his body, turned away from her, kneeling towards the darkness in the far back of the room. As Rukia brought herself forward with uneven steps, the darkness began to clear, and she could see a shrouded figure laying beyond her captain. A few tense, silence moments were spent as her eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, and the cold, still face of Kaien's wife sunk into her unbelieving mind.

"Ukitake… dono?" She asked. She wanted to say more. She wanted to make him tell her that this was not really image she knew she was seeing, that this was not the body she knew it was, that this did not mean what she knew it did. But she said none of this. She was a shinigami, she reminded herself. Shinigami didn't deny the presence of death. Yet somehow, reminding herself this didn't help at all.

"I'm sorry to have to bring you here." Ukitake said, standing and turning at last. "But the burden has to fall on someone." His eyes turned away. Rukia couldn't seem to hold his gaze for more than a few moments at a time. "I, too, follow orders sometimes."

"Where is Kaien-dono?" Rukia asked after a pause, finding her voice. The thought struck her suddenly. The reason she couldn't believe her eyes was because of him, the one piece that was missing. Why wasn't he with his wife?

Ukitake rested his hands on her shoulders without warning, and Rukia stood rooted in shock, letting them sag beneath the weight he applied.

"Your shoulders look so petite, Rukia," he nearly whispered. Once again, she couldn't hold his gaze. It wasn't normal for her captain. "But you were close to him. And you are strong. I believe, despite their appearance, they can hold the weight of his actions."

"Ukitake-dono…" She spoke, but her voice trailed off, and his picked up in its place.

"He is gone, Rukia," he spoke. "He wants vengeance. And he has gone without the permission of his superiors. Against my orders, even. This does not look good for him. It does not look good for Kaien."

Her eyes were blank. "Gone?" She parroted stupidly. Her mind had seen more functional moments.

Ukitake removed his hands and turned towards the dead form on the bedroll behind him. I light sigh escaped his lips. "He's gone looking for the hollow that killed his wife. Do you understand? He's gone to the human world, without permission, to try and find it."

She was trying to compose herself. "And you called me..?" She managed.

"I was ordered," Ukitake continued, seeming to speak more to himself than to her, "that I must send a messenger to find him and order him to return. I was ordered that if he did not return, that the messenger should… take care of him the honorable way." His wording didn't fool her. 'Honorable' was a synonym for death.

Rukia was rooted. Surely he didn't think that she was the person for this job? Impossible!

"I know you don't want to kill him. But that's why I need you. I don't want him to be killed, Rukia, and I don't think he will return. I need to send someone who can reason with him. Someone who is close. Please, Rukia. He admired you as a student."

As a student. Rukia's eyes squeezed shut. She watched the dead body that lay only feet away, and thought of how she had looked up to that once lively face. She had idolized Kaien's wife. Perhaps she had even envied her. Kaien-dono… She imagined how empty the division would feel without him.

"And if I can't reason with him?" Rukia asked at last.

Ukitake's eyes were downcast. Such a heavy air hung between them that when he finally did reply, the words had become unnecessary. She already knew the answer. "I'm sorry, Rukia. We both have orders."

An uncomfortable silence followed this. Then, even more uncomfortable words.

"Kuchiki Rukia. Will you accept this assignment?"

Rukia felt the tears sting her eyes. She bit her own tongue to keep from shedding them. It had not been a question that her captain spoke. "Yes, Ukitake-dono."

Ukitake nodded his head respectfully. "You may take along one companion, so that if the situation becomes necessary, you will be able to… overpower him." Rukia flinched at the words. "Make your choice," her superior told her.

If she had been asked this question an hour ago, Kaien-dono would have been her reply. Now that was impossible. "Arabai Renji," she spoke at last.

"An excellent decision." Ukitake turned back to the deceased form. "I wish you luck, Rukia. You will depart tomorrow morning. High spiritual pressure has been detected around a high school in Japan. I do not know why Kaien would choose this place, and we are not certain it is him. The power does not appear to be a shinigami's, but Kaien was always an expert at hiding himself. This spiritual power… it is as if it is leaking out due to his strong emotions, or at least that is the speculations of counsel 46. Perhaps it is not him, but I doubt this. This power… it is too great to be human. You are dismissed."

"Yes, captain." Her voice was somewhat hollow. She had twenty four hours before her departure. Twenty four hours to enjoy before her world crumbled. But she did not enjoy them. Her surrounding blurred in her mind as all her senses fought to try and comprehend what she'd been told. It was all too sudden.

The night before her departure was spent sleeplessly. Perhaps it was anticipation, or the fear of what she would see in her dreams, but for the first time in years the silence engulfed Rukia and once again stole away her sleep. No matter how hard she tried, she could not force the sleep to come, and so she was left painfully aware through the night. She wished above anything to let her the sleep take this awareness, so that, if nothing else, her unconsciousness would give her an excuse for the tears that still dampened the fabric of her pillow as she left in the morning.

* * *

Very short, possibly rushed prologue. Tell me if you like the idea, please, and if anybody does, I will probably keep writing. It's probably not my best work, but this is my first fan fiction. Yes, my first fan fiction ever. . 


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